Harrison A. Williams

Harrison Arlington "Pete" Williams Jr. (10 December 1919-17 November 2001) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-NJ 6) from 3 November 1953 to 3 January 1957 (succeeding Clifford Case and preceding Florence Dwyer) and a US Senator from 3 January 1959 to 11 March 1982 (succeeding Howard Alexander Smith and preceding Nicholas F. Brady).

Biography
Harrison Arlington Williams Jr. was born in Plainfield, Union County, New Jersey in 1919, and he was involved with the newspaper industry in Washington DC before serving in the US Navy reserve during World War II. In 1948, he became a lawyer, and he was e,ected to the US House of Representatives in 1953, serving until 1957. In 1958, he was elected to the first of several terms in the US Senate, and he won re-election four times. He fought for welfare laws and urban transit programs, and he was instrumental in protecting worker pensions and coal mining health and safety acts. In 1981, he was convicted of taking bribes during the Abscam scandal, and he was forced to resign in 1982. He served two years in federal prison, and he died in a halfway house in 2001.